Summary
The following contains spoilers for the Solo Leveling manhwa.
Despite having two seasons ofSolo Levelingadapted into anime form, many of the secrets of the world still remain hidden to anime-only watchers. One of these mysteries surrounds the origin of hunter abilities. From the beginning of the series, it seems like humans just suddenly gained these abilities once gates started appearing, but how and why were certain humans granted these powerful abilities?
WhileSolo Levelingis still being created and the lore is not yet entirely complete, many facts from future story arcs, not yet adapted into the anime, shed light on the inexplicable emergence of gates and hunter powers.
A Plan by the Rulers
The Gates Strengthen Humanity
In theSolo Levelingmanhwa, it is revealed that entities known as the Rulers have been intentionally causing gates to appear on Earth. While this might seem like an evil thing to do, the Rulers were actually hoping to protect the Earth and humans through their actions. As more gates started opening around the world, the Earth would become infused with the power of mana from defeated monsters. This power would act as humanity’s only defense, giving them a chance to survive in their upcoming war against beings known as the Monarchs.
It is thought that humans began to awaken as hunters as the influx of mana was absorbed into their bodies. However, it is also shown that mana can have a detrimental effect on some humans, causing diseases like themana-sleeping illness that afflicted Jinwoo’s mom. This and other facts cast some doubt on the origins of hunter abilities being solely from the mana coming from the gates.
We see later on that the Rulers also possess the ability to grant powers to hunters directly by turning humans into vessels. It is revealed that the hunter vessels are the reason why several hunters are much stronger than others. These hunters,known as National Level Hunters, serve as the Rulers' stand-ins because Rulers cannot easily interact with Earth and the human world otherwise.
This Ruler ability to grant humans power makes it possible that the true origins of hunter abilities may stem from them entirely. Indeed, we learn in the manhwa that mana itself likely originates from the Absolute Being, the God who created the entire world and is the creator of both Rulers and Monarchs.
Human Awakening
How People Develop Powers
Hunters can tap into mana and use it as a power source to fuel their powers once they have undergone an awakening. An awakened hunter appears to possess a certain, mostly unchangeable amount of mana inside them that can be measured to determine their rank.
While hunters are loosely separated by their abilities into different classes, they seem to have no agency in choosing or influencing which abilities they get. This is demonstrated in the anime when C-rank hunter Song Chi-Yul develops mage abilities despite being trained as an expert swordsman. Song Chi-Yul laments that he awakened as a mage hunter because it conflicts with his natural abilities in close combat. Eventually, he realizes he is better served stepping back from hunting and training combat-oriented hunters with his sword skills instead. Despite his best efforts, he is unable to make hiscombination of natural sword skills and fire magic work.
“I don’t have much time left. At least before I die, I hope to do more for this world.” -Song Chi Yul
While it was originally thought thathunters could never grow stronger, the world sees multiple examples of characters who can break these rules. Sung Jinwoo is granted the powers of the shadow monarch, allowing him to continuously grow stronger thanks to the system preparing his body to accept the full brunt of the monarch’s powers. As previously mentioned, Rulers can grant their powers to chosen humans to increase their abilities, and a character called Norma Selner can upgrade Hunter powers beyond their original limits. In the manhwa, Norma Selnerattempts to upgrade Jinwoo’s powers, but is unable to because they seem to be already limitless.
While these details are known in the manhwa, the series is still being written, and more reveals could change what we know about the origin of hunter powers. It’s also possible that theSolo Levelinganime may change these rules slightly as it continues being adapted.
Solo Leveling
Cast
A-1 Pictures' Solo Leveling is an anime based on Chugong’s popular web novel. Set in an unforgiving fantasy world where hunters explore dungeons filled with monsters, the vulnerable Sung Jinwoo gains a significant power boost after he is picked to be a solo player by the System.
